Photographer's Note

It was sheer joy this weekend to watch the Brahma Kamala in my garden bloom in the night.
Brahma kamala is identified as a flower from India. It blossoms during night time only, once a year during monsoon months. .It has a breath taking fragrance. The plant belongs to the cactus family and said to be common in Himalayan region. It Closes its petals by morning. Its scientific name is Epiphyllum oxypetalum. It is also called as ‘midnight flower’ or ‘Queen of the night’.

A fantastic photograph - the light is great, and the sharpness perfect.

I'm sorry to break this to you, but this is not a Brahma Kamal flower. Epiphyllum oxypetalum is often confused with the brahmakamal, but in reality, it is native to Sri lanka and cannot tolerate temperatures lower than 10 degrees C.

On the other hand, the actual Brahmakamal (see photo here), the Saussurea obvallata grows around 4500 meter elevations in the himalayan tundra. The confusion is understandable - both are large white fragrant flowers. In fact, if you search for "Saussurea obvallata" on google images, almost half of the photographs are of the Epiphyllum oxypetalum.

But regardless of the identification of the flower, it is still a marvelous plant, and I must grow this at our home in Bangalore : )